Last Month's Books: "I Hated, Hated, Hated Some of These Books"

I tried going on a low-carb diet. For someone who centers most meals around carbohydrates--rice, tortillas, popcorn, potatoes--it was hellish. I am not going to stay on a low-carb diet. But I AM going to eat more meat and veg, and fewer carbs. Oh, and no sugar and a drastic decrease in caffeine. That should help a lot. What does this have to do with books? Bugger if I know. Let's talk about books.

Review: THE LIGHT IS THE DARKNESS, Laird Barron

It took me quite a while to formulate my thoughts on Laird Barron’s Lovecraftian-by-way-of-Robert E. Howard novel “The Light is the Darkness.” This was primarily because I try to find good sides of anything I read. (Yes, even Twilight, which had an interesting idea regarding vampirism—if you WANT to be a vampire, you don’t lose control. It’s a mishandled, throwaway line in an awful series, but it IS a bright spot.) Let’s just say it was difficult with Barron.

See, the problem with Barron is that he tries too hard. His writing seems like that of a very excited child who’s been given permission to play with big kid toys. He’s tinkering in Lovecraft’s sandbox (Lovecraft’s antipersonnel-mine-laden sandbox), and he’s so glad to be there that he wants to mention every single Lovecraftian idea Lovecraft, Howard, and every similar writer afterwards has invented. Because I am a singularly boring man, I spent some time picking through the book, finding every Mythos organization or Elder God Barron namedrops.